On Monday, 27 May 2013 at 23:05:46 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
I've recently come to the opinion that that's a bad idea, and D should not support it.
Honestly, removing support for non-ASCII characters from identifiers is the worst idea you've had in a while. There is an _unfathomable amount_ of code out there written in non-English languages but hamfisted into an English-alphabet representation because the programming language doesn't care to support it. The resulting friction is considerable.
You seem to attribute particular value to personal anecdotes, so here's one of mine: I personally know several prestigious universities in Europe and Asia which teach programming using Java and/or C with identifiers being in an English-alphabet representation of the native non-English language. Using the English language for identifiers is usually a sanctioned alternative, but not the primary modus operandi. I also know several professional programmers using their native non-English language for identifiers in production code.
Please reconsider.
